Twenties, it's a defining era in our lives. We are in our final school days awaiting graduation, or settling into our spanking new job. We wear a luscious headful of hair wherever we go, not giving a damn about how many strands of our crowning glory would be left behind in a couple more decades.

Lo and behold, something is happening beneath the surface of your glorious hair and you needn't wait decades to witness a receding hair line. Without early intervention, you'd be losing hair sooner than you can say "thirty". I walked into my scalp check-up appointment brimming with confidence, and walked out horrified with my scalp results. Read on to find out more.

A couple of days back, I went for an appointment at Beijing 101 to get my scalp checked out. I have always been confident of my scalp because I shampoo it on a daily basis, and dutifully scrub and massage it during every shower.

Consultant performing the hair drop test to see the extent of my hair loss

Armed with that level of pride, I assumed that my results would turn out as "oh, you have a normal healthy-looking scalp". Obviously enough, things did not turn out that way.

I found out that the crown of my head was suffering from oily scalp

And I was also suffering from dandruff (fml)

The news was shocking but I was glad to learn about it early. The discovery of this result has placed a significant influence on the quantity and quality of my hair during my coming forties and fifties – call me vain but I wanna have a headful of luscious black hair when I am undergoing my mid-life crisis.

Here is why it is important to seek treatment for scalp problems at an early stage.

There are two components in our hair root responsible for its colour and quantity:

For individuals with oily scalp, the excess oil seeps and flows back into the hair root. The grease pools at the bottom of the hair root, causing a blockage of nutrients that were supposed to be transmitted to either (or both) the melanocytes and follicle papilla. The end-result is the melanocytes or follicle papilla failing to receive the required nutrients for sustenance, and your hair either starts to turn white (due to melanocytes dying) or the hair falls out (due to follicle papilla being blocked).

Fortunately scalp issues are treatable and treatment should be sought after as soon as possible. Early intervention helps in the retention and revival of as many working hair follicles as possible, which is directly relational in the prevention of a balding head at a young age.

At Beijing 101, they have effective treatments tailored to help resolve your problematic scalp.

According to a U.S. study, the Nielsen Survey held in 2016, 90% of the customers who sought treatment at Beijing 101 reported a visible increase in hair growth after their sessions!

Before treatment: My hair looking bad, flat and limp

I underwent a four-step treatment process during my session, which comprised of:

Puriscalp Mask - A Deep Cleansing Scalp Mask

Herbal Wash

Revitalising Hair Treatment

Meridian Herbal Treatment (MHT) or Hydromax Treatment

Just to clarify, the recommended treatment for step 4 is the >Meridian Herbal Treatment (MHT). However due to personal reasons, the hair care centre switched out my massage for the Hydromax Treatment.

I would highly recommend you to go for the MHT as Beijing 101 is renown for providing excellent massages. Their massages would hit various acu-points that are are beneficial to your scalp and would also improve your overall blood circulation and general health.

Treatment Process: Puriscalp Mask

The Puriscalp Mask is a herbal scalp mask designed for oily scalps that are clogged with impurities and are covered in sebum for prolonged periods. This scalp mask penetrates into the scalp pores to remove accumulated sebum and prevents the accumulation of impurities.

It also exhibits detoxifying functions, balancing oil secretion in the scalp, thus allowing healthy hair growth in the long run.

Minerals present in the mask provide nutrition to the hair follicles while expelling toxins at the same time, thus helping the scalp to regain its balance.

Treatment Process: Herbal Wash

Using their specially formulated in-house shampoo, your hair care specialist will do a double wash for you so as to ensure that your scalp is nicely clean and detoxified.

Treatment Process: Revitalising Hair Treatment

Years of chemical dyeing, perming, heating and bleaching have brought a negative impact on my hair.

With this Protein Hair Mask, made out of au naturale ingredients, it revitalises the condition of my hair, smoothens its texture and brings back my hair's shine!

Applying the hair mask

Steaming my hair (with the mask on) to bring out the full effects of the hair mask and to re-moisturise my damaged hair.

The level of our hair's health is a result of different important factors. One of the many factors to having healthy hair would be a sufficient supply of oxygen and nutrients to the scalp and hair.

Good blood circulation encourages the scalp to increase hair growth throughout our head, and ironically the top of our scalp is often one of the most difficult place to maintain good blood circulation due to the fact that it is the farthest point upward from our heart.

Therefore the scalp is the most non-stimulated area of the body, and hair follicles can become sluggish, thus resulting in our hair to grow at a slower rate.

The Hydromax Treatment is an oxygen scalp treatment that combines the use of a botanical tonic with oxygen, to give a balanced scalp and healthy hair strands. Each treatment helps to eliminate bacteria from the scalp while replenishing moisture and balance to the scalp and hair, from the root to the ends.

By application of the oxygen to the scalp, the blood is being stimulated with circulation by the administered nutrients and oxygen that are being topically delivered to the scalp.

Thus this treatments promotes accelerated hair growth in the dermis layer of the scalp, reconstructing the damaged hair from the inside by repairing the bonds, restoring resiliency while refreshing the hair cuticle and cortex.

Here are the results after undergoing all the masks and treatments:

After treatment: My headful of luscious crowning glory is back in action!

A significant difference in my scalp condition after just one session!

I felt really relaxed during my session, probably due to the various lighted candles and use of lavender oil within the treatment room.

Some people would ask, what's the difference between getting a scalp treatment within a hair salon and at Beijing 101? In my opinion, the jarring difference is the smell. I have nothing against hair salons but, I'm pretty sure that some of you have walked past a hair salon and choked at the chemical smell emitting from the salon.

There is none of that sorta (smell) from Beijing 101's Hair Care Centre – and no it doesn't smell of TCM herbs either. The only two times that I had encountered smells within the centre was 1) the lavender oil, 2) the masks used. If I had to describe the scent of the masks, I would say that it is mild and hardly noticeable, with a tinge of floral scent that helped to calm my nerves.

As the treatment went on, I could feel a distinct difference in my hair and scalp – my hair was getting softer and my scalp felt more refreshed. Once my hair got blown dry, damn the effects of the treatment was obvious! I had back a headful of luscious soft and shiny hair.

The only qualm that I have is that it might get boring during the 90mins treatment process where you sit and wait. I would recommend bringing your laptop, a good book or a portable charger so that you wouldn't risk your phone running out of batt halfway through the session!

Other than that, I love the entire process! I wish I could have experienced the Meridian Herbal Treatment which is one of their signature treatment process; their massages have been known to be fab! Easing a couple of knots off my muscles and aiding in better blood circulation really helps to re-energise a person and have you going for the rest of the week – not to mention rocking a wonderful head of hair!

Click here to enjoy this special promotion avail for a limited time only!

Find out more about how YOUR hair and scalp is, and do it fast because early intervention is the key to minimising hair loss at an early age! You really wouldn't know until you have been checked! Book an appointment at your nearest Beijing 101 outlet, call (+65) 6558 8101 or email enquiry@beijing101hair.com.

Blackbox Singapore provides individuals with the choice to experience a sample product before choosing to splurge on the full-size item. It ranges from shampoo, facial foam, sanitary pads, toothpaste and more. Get acquainted with familiar brands such as Dettol, Himalaya Herbals, Biore and more.

For a limited time only, Blackbox is giving away FREE sample packs to everybody! To find out how you can get one of this freebie, keep on reading.

If you are simply dying to know how you can get your hands on one of the free sample packs, scroll to the bottom of this post. Otherwise here is more information about Blackbox.

Blackbox offers two types of products: Classic versus Luxury

Products that falls under "Classic" are products that we can easily find in our local supermarkets or pharmaceutical stores such as SaSa, Guardian or Watsons. With Blackbox Singapore, you can easily sample the new products by choosing 4 items for $5.90 or 9 items @ $9.90.

Products that falls under the "Luxury" category are products which either have their own independent stores, or are not that conveniently found in our local market. Try out the sample-size of these luxury products with ease by choosing 3 items at $9.90 or 7 items at $16.90.

To purchase full-size items, find them under the SHOP>EXCLUSIVE category. Those exclusive sets can be found at a slightly affordable price as compared to the market price, however do note that only a limited number of sets are available!

Travelling these days, is all about taking the best photos to be bragged on your Instagram profile with the hashtags #wanderlust#globetrotter. However having the best photos would also mean having to own the right instagram-worthy outfits in your luggage!

That can play into a serious problem when shopping stylish + comfortable clothes at an affordable price range in Singapore is a pain-in-the ass – besides we also wanna save every buck to spend abroad during our holiday. Now, this is where Pepperkoko comes into play with their wide array of apparel options for every season of the year.

Their clothes are chic, comfy and affordably-priced, and to find out more scroll down further to read.

Pepperkoko Singapore is an online fashion store inspired by their affiliate company in Hong Kong.

With the same amount of passion or even more, Pepperkoko Singapore pledges to bring forth comfort and quality fashion piece that allows individuals to look their best every single day.

Representing Taiwan’s fashion brand "OBDesign", Pepperkoko aims to provide the choice of various trendy styles to suit the occasion.

Start your shopping spree through a range of Korea, Japan and Taiwan styled tops, skirts, dresses, bottoms, innerwear, outerwear, maternity clothes to activewear. They have hundreds of new designs weekly with sizes ranging from XS to 4L, and clothes that you can find for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter no matter what month of the year it is right now.

I had a breeze selecting the sizes for my clothes as Pepperkoko had thoughtfully included an actual wearing report detailing the staff who tried the apparel, their height, weight, body measurements and preferred size.

All I had to do was compare my body details with the staff who had the closest measurements to myself, and pick the size which she found to be most suitable for herself! All my clothes that came fit me so snugly 😎

To allow you to shop with ease and to experience their full suite of services, Pepperkoko is providing 14 days of service assurance for your exchange and returns.

Pepperkoko also delivers locally and internationally, with two dedicated local self-collection options (Pepperkoko office at Jalan Pemimpin or SingPost POP Stations) for your convenience.

As for delivery charges, Pepperkoko offers free delivery for orders above $38 within Singapore and a flat delivery charge of $3.80 for orders below $38. Additional charges may apply for options such as SingPost POP Station service.

For Malaysia address, all orders will be subjected to a $3.80 flat rate delivery fee.

Acne has plagued the lives of many individuals beyond puberty. A slight change in weather, hormones or even stress levels can result in a nasty outbreak that takes weeks or even months to recover. The struggle to keep those bright red boils at bay is REAL.

Now with this range of products from SkinB5, you can win your battles against acne with ease. We put three of their products to test during one of our nastiest break-out moments and were astonished by the results. Read on for more information.

Before and After results from using the products

For this experiment, we opted to use a male subject (specifically my fiancé, Victor) for the below reasons:

I do not have acne issues hence making me an unsuitable candidate to test these products

Most of the reviews that I read used a female subject to test the products, and well, we shouldn't neglect the opposite gender who do face the same skincare issues

More about Victor's facial skin condition. His acne tends to be brought on by stress and a lack of satisfactory sleep. His pimples are mostly concentrated around his forehead, close to his hairline. They are usually huge, red, painful to touch and filled with pus.

He tried the products over a 7-days period and saw a surprising improvement to his acne issues. The redness reduced drastically after using the five-minute mask, and he once had a pimple develop on his nose overnight and after using the products, the nasty red boil was gone the next day!

You can check out the progress of the acne improvement for yourself in the video embedded down below – we recorded the entire trial period as well as his post-experiment comments on the products.

SkinB5 Acne Control Cleansing Mousse ($22.95)

A very gentle, non-drying, antioxidant rich cleanser that works deep down to remove excess oil and problem causing bacteria.

The soothing combination of green tea, vitamin B5 and aloe vera helps to refine skin texture, while salicylic acid aid in the prevention of breakouts. This Acne Control Cleansing Mousse would not clog pores nor dry out the skin. When used daily, the skin would look noticeably healthier and less oily.

SkinB5 Acne Control Moisturiser ($22.95)

The Acne Control Moisturiser is a light, oil-free, antioxidant rich moisturiser for oily acne-prone skin. Its non-greasy formula, that is easily absorbed, leaves no shiny residue behind.

It contains powerful natural ingredients such as green tea, jojoba oil and vitamin B5 which deeply moisturises and prevents breakouts.

SkinB5 Five Minute Skin Purifying Mask ($34.95)

Working externally, this fast-acting five minutes mask for acne-prone skin literally "drinks" oil, toxic substances and impurities from the skin. The unique combination of french green clay, great barrier reef sea minerals, aloe vera and vitamin B5 instantly purifies and soothes the skin.

French green clay is favoured by many exclusive health spas due to its powerful mineral-rich healing properties that helps to sooth and heal skin surface and irritation, and renew our skin condition.

To purchase these products, click here to shop online. Don't forget to give them a thumbs-up on their Facebook page or follow them on their Instagram!

About Me

Hi! My name is Sophie but everyone calls me Soph. I have a son named Ethan, better yet known by his nick #MiniChew. Since you’re at this space, you are probably either into Beauty, Fashion or my favourite topic of late, Parenthood. Watch this page for my honest reviews and quirky shares! xo